


Two Slow Dancers

by 3AMReads



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Canon Compliant, Drabble, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Flashbacks, Getting Together, I Don't Even Know, Keith & Shiro (Voltron) are Siblings, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Light Angst, M/M, Mentioned Allura (Voltron), Mentioned Hunk (Voltron), Mentioned Pidge | Katie Holt, Mentioned Shiro (Voltron), Mutual Pining, Not Beta Read, POV Keith (Voltron), Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Post S7, Post-Canon, Reminiscing, Slow Dancing, Time Skips, he even pines for the Castle, i'm sorry this is really all over the place, ish, it might be a little in accurate cos i couldn't remember everything so apologies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2018-10-15
Packaged: 2019-08-02 07:27:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16300691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/3AMReads/pseuds/3AMReads
Summary: It's funny. The cold, clinical air of the Garrison hospital is almost reminiscent to that of the Castle’s. Dry and crisp. Clean and filtered. Even gives you that sting in your sinuses if you breathe through your nose too fast or hard. It almost makes Keith feel nostalgic.(Keith takes some time alone to reminisce about life in the Castle. He wishes, regrets, and yearns, and Lance gets impatient.)





	Two Slow Dancers

**Author's Note:**

> I was inspired to write this after listening to the wonderful song ['Two Slow Dancers'](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUfkfJfsKrc) by Mitski. It's just one of those songs that has your heart aching? I absolutely love the song and I hope you enjoy this short drabble! Once again not beta read so sorry for any mistakes, and please feel free to give any feedback in the comments- it's greatly appreciated!!

_'It would be a hundred times easier_  
_If we were young again._  
_But as it is,_  
_And it is._  
_We're just two slow dancers, last ones out.'_

_-'Two Slow Dancers' , Mitski_

It's funny. The cold, clinical air of the Garrison hospital is almost reminiscent to that of the Castle’s. Dry and crisp. Clean and filtered. Even gives you that sting in your sinuses if you breathe through your nose too fast or hard. It almost makes Keith feel nostalgic.

He spent so much time in there, and then again, not nearly enough. He can see it all now: his room, the bridge, the kitchen. In cold light and chrome. There's a part of him that misses it. Kind of wishes he was there, instead of this hospital bed, waiting on bones and bruises and hearts to heal. Wishes he could be back there with his team. His family. Before the intergalactic war, given convoluted already, became even more complicated. Back when the story line was simpler. A boy, searching for his brother. Picking up a few lost souls on the way too.

Beggars can't be choosers, Keith thinks, but if he could choose a time to go back to, he wants it to be before he left with the Blade. When he hadn't outgrown his friends by two years. When he could be hot-headed with minimal repercussions, and there wasn't the weight of leadership pulling him back down. It would be easier, to live in that time. But here he sits, in a place he thought he'd never return to. With people he never thought he'd love so much only rooms away. Holding onto a world he never thought he owed anything to. All battered up and filled with victory and pride and accomplishment, yet still feeling that intense yearning, the insistent tug in his chest for something that was a relic and a home and a power source.

Yearning for the memories aboard that crafted piece of metal. The fights. The laughs. The goo. Sentimental, Keith knows, but he's always liked to hold things in a romantic light.

He'd choose a time when his soul was soaring. When Shiro was there in the flesh, being the leader they trusted, and more importantly the brother he needed. When he and Allura began to see eye to eye, forgetting bloodlines and history beyond their reach. When he opened his heart to Hunk and found strange comfort in the presence of Pidge.

When he and Lance were merely centimetres apart.

Hand in hand. Forehead to forehead. The cold, clinical air of the Castle reminding them this is no high school gym. Lance's humming reminding them that, this is no school dance, neither a prom, or a formal. Yet they still sway. They still lean into each other, taking in the rhythm of their heartbeats and the warmth of their breath. As if they were the only dancers left, the other attendants gone home to drink or cry or sleep.

Two slow dancers. The last ones out.

But there is no silver disco ball that hangs precariously from the ceiling. There are no gaudy banners or metallic streamers. Only a wide window, leaving their moment naked to the eye of the universe.

But they don't mind. Keith would be gone by the next quintant. It'd be nice to have a witness to this moment, so that they can never claim it was a dream. So that they can never take it back.

What a time that was. Keith has never been good at saying good byes- he never really got the practise in. Those he'd want to wish farewell had been snatched out of his hands too quickly. But there were no words in this. Only a grip that says neither of them want it to end. Maybe if they hold on tight enough, it won’t. They’ll stay like this forever.

Keith sits between layers of itchy hospital linen, staring at the clock ticking on the wall. _I’m hopeless_ , he thinks, aching for a place which is now cosmic dust. Wishing for a moment that had been packed away with his Paladin uniform. What sends Keith up the wall is that, he could reach for it. He wore that red and white armour once more, he could try Lance on for size again. All he’d have to do is walk to Room 104, only two doors away, and open the door. Wrap himself up in Lance. It’d be like putting on a long-forgotten jacket. Worn and tired, but well loved; still smelling of motor oil and dirt and cheap cologne. But Keith can't seem to bring himself to do it. He just sits and stares at the white walls, going over and over how he’s treated Lance, regretting every dismissive word that has crashed out of his mouth since returning. Mourning all the confessions he’s locked up yet is still bursting to say:

_'I've missed you so much.'_

_'You're my stability, you keep me grounded.'_

_'I'm yours.'_

But _Keith_ keeps getting in the way. The adrenaline junkie. The angry soul. The impatient fool. Every time.

A loud knock echoes through the room, and Keith finds himself staring at the door for a good few seconds before remembering that he should invite the visitor in.

“Come in.”

It comes out so softly that Keith thinks to repeat it so that the person on the other side can actually have a chance of hearing him, but the door swings open almost instantaneously at an alarming speed.

And there's Lance, standing at the door frame, doing the thing Keith had no guts to do. He’s walked down from Room 104, only two doors away. He’s opened the door and stepped right in. Is staring at Keith with something akin to desperation and _determination_ in his eyes.

The cold, clinical air is suddenly on fire. It's burning hot and thick and it's all because of Lance and Keith suddenly feels like he can't breathe.

"Do you take it back?"

"Wha-" Keith brows knit together.

"Do you. Take it back." Lance repeats firmly, his voice only betraying him at the last moment. Keith looks into those cerulean eyes, sees the hurt and confusion and the hopefulness and the _love_ and realises- those crystal pools might just be reflecting his own. He wants so desperately to tell him it's more complicated than that, or that they should talk about another time, but he finds he can't. _‘”Every time”, my ass’_ comes a voice in his head, and he knows it is The Universe who is reminding him of that moment. Reminding him of the softness of Lance's cheek against his palm. Of the feeling of Lance's lips placing a chaste and gentle kiss against his own, barely there but holding so muchpromise it makes Keith shiver. And Keith wants to keep dancing. Wants to stay in Lance's hands for a moment longer, wants to hear his tune for one more tick. To be the last ones out. And maybe, The Universe might let them stay there.

_‘This is the last time.’_

He just has to say it. Come on, Keith- just say it.

Does he take it back?

_Would_ he take it back?

Oh, without a doubt-

"Never."

**Author's Note:**

> thank you a bunch for reading! come yell at me on tumblr @ [glassy-s](https://glassy-s.tumblr.com/)!


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